Five Loves That Hyuuga Hinata Never Had
by Vee-San
Summary: Five short little stories centered around Hinata and the loves that she never had.


**Five Loves that Hyuuga Hinata Never Had**

**1**

She sits on the ground, panting, trying to catch her breath in the hot, midsummer sun. Her jacket is bulky and too warm for the weather. She pushes her long hair off of her face and wonders again why she ever let it grow so long and impractical. Her hitai-ite sticks sickly to the sweat on her neck even as she runs a sweaty palm over her face. Pushing herself back against the trunk of a tree and sighing in relief for the shade, she unzips her jacket with one hand.

Shino drops down beside her without a word, though he does seem confused. She just shrugs, knowing that their training could go on, but also knowing that she would rather stay where she was, thank you very much. She ignores his tilted head and instead pats the ground next to her wordlessly. He sits without a sound, legs outstretched and back pressed firmly against the bark.

She takes one of his hands in her own and rests her head upon his shoulder. He turns his head and presses a kiss to the crown of her head. He squeezes her hand wordlessly and surveys the training field that they had claimed as their own. She smiles at the contented humming of his kikai and squeezes right back.

**2**

Kiba swaggers up to her one day, slings an arm around her shoulder, and gives her a casual lick on the cheek.

She blushes like she hasn't in years, and then chases him around the town until he stops laughing.

When he finally does stop, he grins at her and asks if she'd like to go out and eat something with him sometime. Alone. Without Shino or Kurenai or Neji hanging around, waiting for him to trip up and do something that they deem unbecoming behavior around her. Without their death threats hanging over Kiba's head as he holds her close and makes her his in such a way that nobody ever had before.

She doesn't know what he's talking about, but she smiles and nods and agrees anyway.

**3**

She's looking at the flowers in the garden of their family compound when Hanabi sits next to her. She smiles at her little sister and asks her how her day has been. Hanabi is as quiet as ever, because she's still not sure if it's okay to talk to her big sister like this or not. Hanabi thinks she can feel her father's disapproving eyes on her, but she always feels like he's watching, so she shrugs it off.

Instead, Hanabi turns to her sister and asks, "What is love?"

She blinks in shock, flushing a pale pink because love is a topic that just does that to her. She thinks of why her little sister would be asking and fights the urge to smile. Instead she explains it as best she can. She tells her that it's about wanting to be with somebody, about caring about them very much, but above all, about wanting them to be happy.

Hanabi listens to this and she smiles, satisfied.

The next time she's sitting in the garden, Hanabi plops a bundle of pink snapdragons, roughly picked from their own flower patch, in front of her. She wonders what she's gotten herself in to, and tries to explain it to her little sister once more.

**4**

Tenten is very protective of her, only partly because Neji is, too. Tenten is the one who answers all the questions she can't ask Kurenai, about training, about boys, about life and about everything else in-between. It is Tenten that she turns to when she needs a break from her teammates, and Tenten turns to her for the same reasons. They are very close friends, and Neji leaves her in Tenten's care when he has solo missions.

She's a little annoyed that Neji seems to think she can't protect herself—she is a kunoichi, after all. When Tenten hears this she tries to treat her more like an equal, so she's not as annoyed with her. Tenten lets her walk around without some variety of guard, which is something even her teammates have difficultly doing, so she is very grateful to the other girl.

Tenten is the one who teaches her how to kiss, because Tenten is the one to teach her everything her sensei cannot and Tenten would kill anybody else who dared try. Tenten is very protective of her.

**5**

She sits with her hands folded delicately upon her lap. She sits with the smallest of smiles upon her face. She sits across from him at the dinner table and ducks her head. She sits with the barest hint of a blush brushing across her cheeks.

He looks into the cup of lukewarm tea that sits in front of him and frowns. He sits with fists folded upon the table. He sits at their dinner table, longing to take her hands in his. He sits with a burden upon his shoulders that he never thought would weigh him down.

He drinks the last dregs of his tea and stands. She looks up at him with raised eyebrows. He looks at her and he looks through her, while she just sits and smiles up at him. He wonders how they could do this to them, to him, to her. Then he remembers what kind of people their family is composed of and he can only sigh.

She stands to join him, collecting their cups and smile still in place.

He waits for her to stand still in front of the sink before he can bare it no more. He crosses the room and wraps his arms around her from behind, eyes closed to fight back tears that he may not have, but that he can feel in her.

She leans into his embrace and lets the tears fall.

Holding his beloved cousin close, he's not sure if he should bless or curse his family.

She's not sure if she should be ashamed of how happy being his wife makes her.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** The universe and characters of Naruto are the property of Masashi Kishimoto, who is not I, and various companies such as ViZ, etc. I take no claim to them, and merely borrow them for my own personal amusement. I make no profit aside from my own personal enjoyment and that of those who read and actually like the story; the stories themselves are my own.

**Notes:** I know the "Five things...", etc. format is relatively old, but I'm quite fond of it. If you take any offence to any of the pairings I used, kindly try not to bite my head off; with the exception of story three, they're all pairings I'm quite fond of. The third story, I just thought would be cute. As always, any comments or crituqe would be greathly appreciated.


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